


Spark of Life

by Gothams_Only_Wolf, Jocelyn



Category: Pacific Rim, Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, FEELS DAMMIT!, Family Feels, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hansen Family Feels, Jaeger Feels, Jaeger Pilots, Jaegers (Pacific Rim), Sentient Jaegers, Shatterdome Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-17
Updated: 2015-03-18
Packaged: 2018-03-18 06:29:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 15,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3559586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gothams_Only_Wolf/pseuds/Gothams_Only_Wolf, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jocelyn/pseuds/Jocelyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Sentient!Jaeger round robin fic by Jocelyn/3Fluffies and Gothams_Only_Wolf/bamfcoyotetango on Tumblr.  Every Ranger, technician, and crewmember knows the truth even if the rest of the world doesn't:  the Jaegers are alive.  When they look at you, you know.  When they want to say something, you will get the message.  As Operation Pitfall approaches, our human heroes aren't the only ones preparing to face the Breach, and the Jaegers have some plans of their own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> This fic started with a little plot bunny about ten days ago from [Gothams_Only_Wolf/BamfCoyoteTango](http://bamfcoyotetango.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr. I had never been much interested in the Sentient Jaeger device... famous last words. We started up a round robin fic, and here is the result, polished up a little from the Tumblr postings. Enjoy!

**Chapter One**

_2025, T-minus-7 days to Operation Pitfall..._

The Jaegers are alive. Anyone who has really worked with them knows it. It’s not exactly a secret, but outsiders tend to assume it’s just urban legend, part of the growing mythos that surrounds them. Journalists call it Jaeger lore and treat it like a well-known inside joke.

To the Rangers, it’s no joke.  

There has never been an incident of a Jaeger attacking a person… but most of the J-Techs and support crews agree that there’s no point taking chances.  
  
" _Be nice to Jaeger pilots or the Jaeger will kick your ass, man_."  
  
Raleigh and Mako have both spent long enough around Jaegers to remember that, and they remember again after the brawl with Chuck Hansen.  
  
You can’t hear what a Jaeger is thinking if you haven’t drifted in its conn-pod, but sometimes the outsiders still know.  The Jaegers are a lot less restrained towards each other. 

Even before being assigned permanently to Hong Kong, Crimson Typhoon and Cherno Alpha tend to throw elbows whenever they’re out on Scramble Alley together - before the neural handshakes are even initiated. 

Jaeger lore says that Romeo Blue and Eden Assassin hated each other, and Eden had tripped Romeo up during test maneuvers once.  The pilots claimed it was just a misstep.  The engineers and pons tests insisted the pilots had _not_ moved their own legs.  Good thing Eden and Romeo only crossed paths a few times.  
  
As for Raleigh, the next time he’s in the main launch bay… Striker Eureka _creaks_ at him. 

He looks up, and the conn-pod is definitely tilted lower than a Jaeger’s usual “at-rest” position - his gaze directly on Raleigh.  

Raleigh raised his hands in surrender.  “Okay, sorry about that,” he tells the Mark-5.  “Just a disagreement between guys.  I’ll clear the air with him.” 

Some people yell if the Jaeger reacts to them, hoping the Jaeger will hear and understand. Raleigh isn’t sure what any Jaeger other than Gipsy senses or hears from human voices, but his theory is that volume doesn’t matter.  Striker will get the message.

The low rumble from the Mark-5’s giant frame could just be vibrations from the ever-continuing maintenance… or maybe not. When Raleigh looks over his shoulder… _Yep._ There’s no doubt about it. Striker’s looking at him.

This is the cornerstone of it all. Every Ranger, J-Tech, and strike trooper agrees. When a Jaeger is looking at you, on his own, through his own eyes and not his pilots, you _know._

Raleigh gives Herc a sheepish smile when he sees him next.  “Your mech’s mad at me.”

Herc chuckles. "Don’t worry, mate, Striker’s used to Chuck getting into it with people. He hasn’t stepped on anyone yet, just rumbles to let you know that that’s _his_  leftie you’re mucking around with.” 

Raleigh has to grin. So no hard feelings from the right hemisphere human either. For their own sakes, he wants to keep Herc and Striker’s good opinions.

Herc dishes himself a truckload of potatoes and asks, "How’s Gipsy taking all this?"

_**To be continued...**  
_


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a lot of fun. Never actually done anything like this and I had no clue where this was going.

Gipsy is, to say the least, not impressed when Chuck Hansen passes her Bay. She creaks in her moorings and lifts her pede, deliberately stomping when he moves to the other side. The ground shakes as she turns on her fog horn speakers and starts playing _‘F*ck You’_ by Lily Allen. She hears some of her techs giggle at the lyrics.

She makes sure her displeasure is very unmistakeable. To say that to Mako when she’s been waiting for the opportunity nearly her whole life is… Well, she doesn’t think he deserves Striker at times. It’s an unkind thought, she knows, but honestly she’s like Raleigh when it comes to her leftie; Mako deserves all the adoration plus respect she could ever want and then some.

Mako stands on the repair deck, watching how Gipsy reacts towards Chuck. **Gipsy?**

 ** _You’re ours. He doesn’t get t’ do that._** Gipsy growls, her metaphorical hackles raised. **_‘M not just disappointed with him either._** A flash of Stacker telling Mako she’s grounded from piloting flares through their connection. **_I refuse to work for any other pilot. I know they worked hard and they should pilot… But I can’t have anymore people in my AI._**

 **I know. You can still feel him.** Both of them understand who she’s talking about and Gipsy’s entire frame rattles.

 _There’s my dames._ Raleigh reaches up and Gipsy extends her enormous servo out to him. He clambers on and invites Mako with a smile. She climbs up more gracefully than the puppy Raleigh is but Gipsy drops them off on her shoulder pauldron. _Striker made sure I knew t’ make up with Chuck. Gotta find ‘im._

 _ **I c’n ask Striker if ya want?**_ She asks as she looks at her pilots. They’re good for one another. _**Hansen did pass this way recently.**_

**You can do that?** Both Mako and Raleigh’s shock echoes down their link with her.

 _ **Well yeah.**_ Gipsy sheepishly touches the back of her mantle as she shifts her pede back to it’s correct spot. **_'S how Brawler an’ I were real good friends. Lemme jus’ comm. ‘im real quick._** She sends out a comm. to Striker, careful not to catch either Cherno or Typhoon in it. _**Strike?**_

**Yeah?** The other Jaeger’s tone is vaguely disgruntled.

 ** _Where’s your leftie?_** Gipsy asks as she keeps an electronic eye on her pilots via the Bay cameras.

 **Why?** The other Jaeger sounds a bit put out.

 ** _Cause my right wants to apologize._** Her tone is faintly exasperated.

 **Mmm. He’s in my Conn-pod, huggin’ on Max. Send Mako first an’ then yer Seppo.** Striker advises with a small gesture towards his Conn-pod.

 ** _Not arguin’ that strategy. ‘S a good one._** She sighs as she offers her servo to Mako first, explaining via their connection what Striker wanted them to do.

 **'Msorry my leftie took a low-blow at yer leftie.** He murmurs as Mako climbs into the escape hatch on his Conn-pod.

 ** _He’s a jerk. But you know him better than I do._** Gipsy points out dryly as she also sets Raleigh down onto Striker’s repair dock.

 **Said ye almost stepped on him. That true?** Striker questions.

 _ **… A little. I stomped when he moved t’ the other side.**_ She scuffs her pede against the flooring, creating mini sparks that don’t hit anything.

 **Thanks fer not squishin’ him. I’ll talk with him an’ try t’ get him to behave ‘round yer pilots.** Striker hums as he lifts Raleigh up as well.

 ** _Me too. Thanks, Strike._**

**_To be continued..._ **


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Gotham] This one's Jocelyn's chapter. Just putting them up. :)

_2023_

_Jaeger Restoration Project_

Jaegers cried. 

Not with tears or any artificial physical trait that mimicked a human… but Mako had been working with them for three years, and seen them in the field even longer. What they did when they mourned… there was no way to call it anything else but crying.

Physical pain was nothing to an unpiloted Jaeger. They only understood what physical pain was because of the way their receptor program translated into their human pilots. Without the pilot in the conn-pod, repairs could proceed with the Jaeger fully aware, and they didn’t mind at all. 

(Well, some of the J-Techs insisted their Jaeger was ticklish.)

But when their pilots were hurt, or worse, when they died, the Jaegers cried.  
The most important things she learned about the Jaeger Program were not what were formally taught at the Academy. The Academy instructors never could quite bring themselves to be open about the truth every pilot knows, so it passed by word of mouth: _“Jaegers are alive and sentient. They think, they calculate. Their designers planned for that. What they didn’t plan for was that Jaegers would feel. They love. They even have a sense of humor. And they mourn.”_

The new Restoration Project was an elite, difficult, and honorable assignment that Mako was proud to accept. But Sensei warned Mako from the beginning that it wouldn’t be easy. _"The engineers have already identified the Jaegers whose damage can be most easily repaired, who are good candidates for restoration. But it will still be hard. It will mean going to Oblivion Bay, and that is a horrific place. Even if you haven’t piloted, I think you’ll feel it."_

She expected to arrive in a graveyard, a sad mausoleum of tragic death where the corpses could not be buried with honors but were merely left in the sterile sand of the nuclear hot zone. Sensei forewarned her when he explained why he himself could not bear to set foot there. The radiation was a serious hazard to him, but his reasons had nothing to do with that.

 _”Some of them aren’t dead. We’ve done what we can to ease their suffering, but...”_ he trailed off, eyes distant. 

Mako was stunned and, at first, a little outraged. How could that be justified? How could a commanding officer stand for it, especially one who’d been a Ranger? It was one of the emergency medics who explained it to her: _"We lose people sometimes, and worst of all is when we have to leave someone to die. Sometimes a person can’t be saved, or not without risking the lives of dozens or hundreds more. That’s battlefield triage. Those people are sometimes Jaegers. It takes hours or days for a human with a human life span to die from injuries. Jaegers exist on a different scale. It’s horrible, but it’s true. J-Tech has sent crews in when they can, try to power the mechs down – induce rest mode without repair mode."_

When Mako arrived at Oblivion Bay, she recognized it immediately. The geologists whose seismographs detected the near-constant vibrations in the ground had chalked it up to some instability triggered by the K-Day nuclear detonations. It was true, the blasts had cracked stone and melted sand, sending seawater flooding through fissures… and the Oakland region was seismically active to begin with. 

But through the thick material in the boots of her radiation suit, Mako felt it. And in the sound pickups outside, she heard it.

Metal groaned, and wind blew beyond any source from the atmosphere. The wreckage in front of her moved more than any shattered building or beached ship could have done from natural causes.

Some of them are still alive. 

Some were not. Mako paused as they passed the corpses of two Mark-1s, now entirely drained of the power that had given them life. She had begged to come here before to pay her respects to the dead even as she tried to save the living. “Just remember, our little human time here is very limited in this radiation.”

But Mako recognized the massive gray figure, horribly disfigured by brutal blows on the rocky islands of Alaska. Coyote Tango’s reactor had melted down, her conn-pod and large parts of her frame melted and warped by the heat. Her pilots, fortunately, hadn’t lived to see her death throes; both had died in the fall that brought her down or in the seconds after when the kaiju tore into the pod. Her failsafe generators had exploded from the stresses.

She had already been a corpse when she was laid here. Mako never forgot the way Sensei bent over his desk to avoid looking at the casualty report. Coyote Tango, Destroyed. Vic Tunari, KIA. Gunnar Tunari, KIA.

She expected him to go Hawaii to visit Tamsin and grieve with her, but instead, he went to St. Lawrence Island. Shaking off the warnings and threats of the radiation, he donned a hazmat suit with an extra counter and approached Coyote’s body.  
He could only stay a few moments, but obeyed that restriction before the MPs threatened to drag him away.

Mako cried when she saw that security clip. He’d had to see for himself. Had to be sure. She didn’t blame him.

When he came back to their quarters, he said quietly, painfully, “She’s gone. There’s no restoring her. Ever.”

It eased his grief for the Tunaris and for that brave, strong Jaeger who’d been open minded enough to accept a new team and fought fiercely with then – but on the few occasions Stacker had been in the vicinity, Coyote had acted up, bungling test maneuvers and generally making everyone’s lives difficult. _“Maybe visit your old girlfriend, sir?”_ one of the Tunaris suggested, exasperated.

 _“She’s aware I’m here as a Marshall to observe,”_ Stacker had protested.  
The Shatterdome intercom buzzed on, and the fight song for the Tottenham Hotspurs came bellowing out from every direction. 

The Tunaris roared with laughter. _“Hell with rank protocols when a Jaeger gets mad,”_ declared Vic. He pointed. _“Dude! You’re keeping a lady waiting! Go see her!”_ Stacker had relented, to much ribbing.

Never knowing that would be the last time he’d see his Jaeger or his lively young successors alive.

Now Mako approached her wreckage and put the glove of her Hazmat suit on an undamaged limb. ”Thank you,” she whispered aloud. ”I would not be here without you. Many people would not be here.”

There was no answer, not even a rustle in reply. Mako ached at that, then felt guilty for wishing for it. If she was alive, she would only be suffering with no means of ending it until the vestiges of power in her massive system finally spent themselves. 

Her teammates on the Restoration Project were hanging back, but they’d worked out her intentions, and were patient despite the short time they could all be here safely. They stood waiting as Mako stepped back and bowed to Coyote’s grave and waited for her to come back to them.

Through their face plates, she could see many red eyes and wet cheeks. ”There’s not a one of us here who doesn’t owe our lives to at least one of them,” someone said roughly.

"Hey… did you notice?" One of the others gestured. Mako looked back, and almost sobbed aloud.

Nearest Coyote lay the wreckage of Tacit Ronin. Only part of the torso and one arm were really identifiable after the cataclysm that had destroyed him six months ago. He hadn’t been dead, but dying when he was moved to Oblivion Bay, in meltdown like so many of the other nuclear Jaegers. 

His lingering had been mercifully brief by Jaeger standards. The J-techs had learned some tricks by now, and had drained all the power that they could before consigning him to this place. The meltdown had ended within a week.

But he’d moved from the position he’d been left in. His one good hand, the white paint still bright against so much burned, blackened metal, now rested on the edge of Coyote’s remains, as if Ronin had reached out to touch her in his last moments.  
"Mako… sorry, but if we’re gonna do this, we have to go. Even in the suits, we can’t be here much longer."

How she wished she could wipe her face, but no great matter. She looked no different from her crewmates. She bowed once more, this time to Tacit Ronin, and as a group, the humans turned and walked away.

But there was indeed horror waiting for them. On the other side of the bay, there was movement in the wreckage, and sounds that couldn’t be blamed on anything natural. Nothing biological lived here where three nuclear weapons and multiple reactor cores had burned. Not even bacteria.

They had to hurry. She swallowed hard and looked at the list in her hand. It was paper. They’d leave it behind after taking this survey, rather than try to carry irradiated electronics in and out. 

_Diablo Intercept, Mark-2, partial meltdown and major superstructure damage, 2019-04-04, both pilots KIA._

_Eden Assassin, Mark-2, crush damage to conn-pod and upper structure, reactor compromised but no meltdown, 2021-06-01, both pilots KIA._

_Matador Fury, Mark-3, partial meltdown, and extreme superstructure damage, 2022-09-01, both pilots KIA._

_Gipsy Danger, Mark-3, reactor casing intact, full shutdown, one limb severed, moderate superstructure damage left side, 2020-02-29, one pilot KIA._

_Chrome Brutus, Mark-3, reactor casing intact, full shutdown, extreme superstructure damage, 2021-12-01, both pilots KIA._

These five loosely-termed “candidates” for restoration weren’t the only Jaegers still loosely-termed “alive” here, just the ones that Engineering thought might be capable of being rebuilt.

Puma Real hissed and twitched like the big cat she was named for - a wounded and dying one, anyway. The crews had been warned to stay well away from her. She didn’t have a lot of strength left, years later, but lashed out at anyone who tried to approach. 

After her pilots died and a kaiju had ripped her torso nearly in half, most media believed the cover story that the ear-splitting screech that went on and on from her wreck had been some cascade reaction in her emergency systems, the thrashing the power surges from her damaged reactor. It had taken an EMP to immobilize her so she could be moved.

"I think Chrome Brutus or Gipsy Danger are our best chance," said one of the crew softly. "They got full reactor shutdowns, so there’s no radiation leakage or meltdown damage to worry about. Their systems were mostly operational, so we got them pretty well powered down before they were moved." Even as he spoke, something moved nearby. "Or mostly. Dr. Lightcap said she hopes it’s akin to coma."

"Neither of them have moved much since they arrived," someone else confirmed. "Not like Matador."

The poor Mexican Jaeger was yards over from where he’d been laid last year. A lot of the sound came from him. Mako’s first thought was that he had suffered the fate of Puma Real, grief-maddened, too dangerous to approach.

But when the crews passed close to him to examine the other Mark-3’s, he turned his head. Mako stopped, her heart skipping and twisting in anxiety and pity, and she felt his gaze on her. 

_”When they’re looking at you, you know,"_ Dr. Schoenfeld had told her. _"I designed and built them. We meant for them to see for us, move with us. The first time one of them looked back, we felt it, even without the neural handshake. We knew something had happened that nobody ever anticipated.”_

Mako bowed to Matador, and after a few moments, he turned his face away. His rusting, warped hull groaned as he moved, and some of his ventilation fans were still running. The sound they made was like a moan. 

She wished she could wipe her eyes. It was impossible in these hazmat suits. Her consolation was that every single member of the Jaeger Restoration Team had wet cheeks and red eyes visible behind their face masks. She had to focus now. The radiation levels here were far too dangerous to stay long. She had to think clinically as Sensei had taught her, shut out all emotion despite the horror and anguish of this place.

The crews working on Chrome Brutus found his power failing fast, and when they tried to inspect the damage, he shook sharply as if to brush them away. Mako hurried to join them, and knelt in front of what remained of his conn-pod. As with Matador, she was soon in no doubt that he could see her. But when she reached toward him, metal groaned in his damaged structure, making a noise rather like a growl.

He was pulling his limbs in as much as he could, away from the intruders. He might not be crazed and aggressive like Puma Real, but the message was clear: Leave me alone.

“I’m sorry,” she said, and bowed to him. “Forgive us for troubling you.”

What had they been thinking? Their presence was only tormenting these noble souls. “We shouldn’t do this,” she muttered at the crew. “It’s wrong to disturb them this way.”

“You want to scrap the whole project?”

“If necessary.”

“I don’t know that Chrome could be saved anyway, condition he’s in. I think he’s turned on just about every program he can run… he’s trying to run his cells out, and at this rate, he’ll succeed by the end of the year,” said one of the engineers. “That’s definitely what he wants.”

“Gipsy Danger’s still on power save, though.” One of the others held up the readings they’d taken on her. She was hoarding her power cells, sending pulses to keep her minimal sensors and movements functioning. The pulses were like a heartbeat. Unlike Chrome, she hadn’t tried to shake anyone off when they approached to check her. 

Mako turned toward the other Mark-3. Maybe it was just that Gipsy was less alert than Chrome, less aware of her surroundings. But just to be sure, Mako stepped into the line of sight from the undamaged part of the conn-pod.

Gipsy moved. 

“Mako!” someone exclaimed, but Mako felt the Jaeger’s eyes on her, and stayed still even as the one massive intact limb shifted, the rusted, damaged metal creaking and groaning in protest – but the Jaeger’s hand came down with surprising delicacy, close to Mako, but not moving to knock her away or fling sand on her.

“Mako, we’re almost out of time, we’ve got minutes!”

Gipsy Danger shuddered.

Mako lunged closer to the Jaeger’s eye. “Gipsy, if you wish, we can try to restore you. If that’s what you want, I swear to you, we’ll come back and take you away from here.”

“Power levels rising. She definitely hears you.”

With a painful grinding noise, half-buried in the sand, Gipsy moved her conn-pod, just a little, up and down.

“Oh my god,” someone whispered. 

Mako bit back a sob and put her hand on the rusted iron hull. “Then rest. We’ll return soon.”

Gipsy shuddered again and again, but the humans’ time for this visit to Oblivion Bay was up, and to stay longer was to risk all their lives. Mako kept her eyes on the Jaeger as the chopper carried them away, and saw that Gipsy had curled her one hand into a fist.

_The Mark-3 Restoration Project_

_January 2025_

For the next two years, she spent every waking hour in Gipsy Danger’s company. By the end, she thought she understood Gipsy. 

She wondered how it was that Gipsy kept fighting for her life when the other Jaegers clearly desired only to be left in peace – or at least alone – to die. She and Dr. Lightcap assumed that it had something to do with the fact that one of Gipsy’s pilots was still alive, and supposed that gave the Jaeger hope. 

Mako was aware of that – but it was not until that first drift in Hong Kong that she truly understood.

For the first weeks out of Oblivion Bay, the Jaeger did not resist the repairs, even though she was being more or less rebuilt from the ground up. But the first time they powered her up for tests, her entire structure shuddered so much that the work crews retreated, unable to get too close.

Mako redirected them to the many projects that didn’t require them to be climbing on the Jaeger. But she stayed in the assembly bay, even though there was a great deal of work for her to be doing too. It did not seem right to leave Gipsy to cry alone.  
They don’t feel physical pain, not like humans, she reminded herself. They’re not merely big metal humans. They are a race apart, beings unlike us, and it’s a disservice to think otherwise. So this could only be grief.

“I’m so sorry,” she told Gipsy again and again. “They were brave men.”

The trouble started when the repairs were nearly complete, and Mako and Marshall Pentecost were going over the list of potential pilots. Mako restrained herself from venting her own desires and ambitions to Gipsy. It felt wrong, to burden the lonely Jaeger and use her influence as the restorer to curry favor that way. However, she did think it was only polite to read the list of candidates to Gipsy.

Gipsy responded promptly by ejecting the motion rigs for both hemispheres, leaving them to fall to the conn-pod floor. 

Some of the pilot candidates, many sympathetic and moved by Gipsy, visited to introduce themselves. She sealed the conn-pod airlock from the inside, forcing the techs to spend hours to get it open. On one occasion, they tried bringing the pilot candidates into the separated pod – over Tendo Choi’s warning that Gipsy would not appreciate it. Upon completing the drop, Gipsy blew every fuse in the pod.  
Marshall Pentecost was frustrated. “They pick up personality traits from their pilots. The Beckets were rather… incorrigible themselves.”

Mako understood his worries; with attacks coming so rapidly and more and more Jaegers taking hits, they were running out of time to get Gipsy moving. But she’d spent too long witnessing the signs of the Jaeger’s grief to brush it aside. “She misses them. I’d hoped to be able to tell her where Raleigh Becket is.”

“I’m searching for him. He may not be able or willing to pilot again, but at least we’ll give him the chance to see her.”

_Ding! Ding! Ding!_

They looked up. Obviously, the lady in question was listening in. 

All “sound effects” that a Jaeger made apart from what she could generate from her massive body were programmed by the pilots. Some mechs had quite the repertoire. Mako had raised her eyebrows at some of the raunchy music and crude noises the Beckets had programmed into Gipsy, but out of respect for them and for her, left it in. Gipsy put them to use now, making her position clear.

Mako smiled. “I take that to mean that you won’t tolerate any other candidate until we offer the chance to your Raleigh first.”

Gipsy’s left pilot light came on. Even Sensei could not fail to miss it. He heaved a long-suffering sigh that Mako rather thought was slightly exaggerated, the way he used to do when he was teasing her, years ago. “So I’m off to do the lady’s bidding. Keep me posted." 

_**To be continued…** _


	4. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Gotham] More chapters to come~

* * *

Gipsy knew the second Raleigh stepped into the main area leading to the Bays.

She rattles her entire frame and turns on her speakers, joy suffusing her circuits as she feels Raleigh’s mind after nearly five years. Gipsy plays ‘Halo’ by Beyoncé, part of her keening at the memory that Yancy had placed the song there before their last drop. It’s not loud by any means but it is intentional; the techs who worked on her before Knifehead understand her perfectly. Now-To convince Mako that she wants her to pilot…

She doesn’t see the Kwoon matches but Raleigh’s link lights up like fireworks at the end, when he’s fighting someone actually worth his time. Her pilot’d had formal staff training when he’d lived in France so those amateurs (as well meaning as they’d been) don’t need to be mucking her up. He needs someone equal; someone to balance him out.

* * *

When the Marshal approaches her, caution in his step since he knew Jaegers, she gives him her full attention.

"I said no to my daughter as both a Father and as her superior. However, I know that you have a preference. Will you take another candidate other than the one Mr. Becket has chosen?"

Her speakers come on and she plays radio clips Yancy and Raleigh had programmed in her AI. “Sir, no Sir!”

"May I ask why?"

"I swore I’d never fall again/But this don’t even feel like falling," she replies.

"With the candidate Mr. Becket stated was his copilot." The Marshal frowns heavily at her but she’s above being manipulated.

"Four for you, Glenn Coco. You go Glenn Coco." She knows it’s a smart-mouthed response but she doesn’t want anyone else. "She’s the one that I want/Hoo-Hoo-Hoo/The one I need/Oh yes indeed."

"Very well. But if they fail, they will be grounded again and you will pick the next candidate. Time is not on our side, Lady Danger." Stacker murmurs as she sways in her moorings but doesn’t come close to him.

"But I can’t change/even if I tried." She knows that Stacker understands what she means. She can’t Drift without Raleigh, without Mako. Mako is hers in a way she cannot, will not, explain to anyone. The worst part is that if they do fail, she will have to choose from one of the forced candidates. The Marshal will expect no less of her. There is a War going on and she’s a soldier as much as the pilots. "It’s okay not to be okay."

"You scanned me."

"Yes, sir." She uses the audio from her boys, Raleigh this time.

"You are one of the very few who know then."

"I c’n keep a secret." She pulls from her radio files this time, making sure the man knows she won’t tell Mako.

"Thank you. I have made up my mind. You will see your pilots come morning."

"Hallelujah! Amen!" The Marshal shakes his head with a faint smile tugging at his lips.

* * *

After the Drift, Gipsy watches her pilots talk at length while her heart is revealed.  
_Gips?_

 ** _Yes, my Ranger?_** Gipsy presses affection down their link, brushing against Mako as well.

_Ya want in on this?_

**I would like to know you better.** Mako presses back sweetly, shyly as she holds hands with Raleigh.

 _ **Of course. You stood with me when I grieved. Even when others left or turned away, you remained.**_ Her double-core reactor purrs loudly as she projects joy at being with her pilots.

 _You… You stayed?_ Raleigh asks even as he flares _affection-dismay-pride_ through thier link. 

**I could not leave. It felt dishonorable to leave her to grieve Yancy alone. I read out the list-**

_**They went around your recommendation. I didn’t like that.** _

**Tendo’s as well.** Mako agrees with a slight wash of I-told-you-so.

 _Wow, really?_ Raleigh’s sarcastic remark makes Gipsy giggle. _Y’don’t force people an’ y’ definitely don’ force Jaegers. Glad we sorted that mess out._

**Sensei will not let us Drift again.**

_**About that… He asked me to pick another pilot if you two didn’t work out. I said I would but those Jaegers out there—They made their choices; I made mine a long time ago. It’s you and Raleigh or no one at all.**_

**You would do that?**

**_Of course-_** She jerked as an EMP slammed through the electronic systems. Thankfully she was analog and that hadn’t hurt. **_What was that?! Go check on LOCCENT. I can see that everyone’s alive but I can’t see if anyone got hurt._**

 _Infrared. Right. Thanks doll._ Raleigh and Mako run at a full sprint towards LOCCENT with their minds laced together in a common goal.

 ** _Striker?!_** She pulses a bullet comm. directly against Striker’s AI and gets no response. **_Shit. Strike’s not responding. You better hurry. That’s two Kaiju against one city and th’ city’s gonna lose._**

_Th’ Marshal told us t’ suit up. You’re gonna face ‘em._ Gipsy growls in response, the flare of flat-out revenge washing over the Bond. _Gips! It’s not for us._

 **But it is for them.** Mako counters softly, her mind showing grief at the Kaidanovskies and the Weis deaths.

 ** _For them._**

_For them._

Her pilots suit up again and this time… This time the Drift is **_glorious_**. 

It’s Mako in Tanegashima learning Kendo strikes, it’s Raleigh in Southern France learning French quarterstaff, it’s Yancy saying hello and goodbye all at once.

Jaegers do not cry, no, but they can fight with their grief well in hand.


	5. Chapter Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaegers laugh. Jaegers love. Jaegers hope, even at the edge of the apocalypse. In the aftermath of the battle of Victoria Harbor, Gipsy and her pilots help find hope for the entire world.

Jaegers laugh.  It’s not recognizable to an outsider, but the people who know them, work with them, especially the people who drift with them, they always know.  It’s not hard to figure out:  when the people surrounding her are laughing and joking, and suddenly the Jaeger’s hull rattles, she’s simply joining in.

_Hong Kong, 2025…_

They slam into the ground, and the impact knocks the wind from their bodies – all three of their bodies.  For a few moments, neither pilots nor Jaeger can move, but gradually, Mako and Raleigh catch their breath, and by extension, Gipsy as well.  They pull themselves to their feet, scanning the cloud of dust and rubble raised by their landing.  Only minor dents and scrapes.  Structural integrity is good, the hull is intact.

Over her external pickups, Gipsy hears cheering.  Humans throughout Hong Kong have seen her rise and know what it means.

It means there is still hope.

While they wait for the Jumphawks to retrieve them, Gipsy and her pilots are running circuitry tests to pass the time and get a head start on determining the repairs to be done.  Then she picks up a data burst from too far away to be the Shatterdome.

Through her, Raleigh and Mako sense it too.  “What was that?” Raleigh mutters.  

“Striker?” Mako suggests.

_No, Striker is still in transit,_ she tells them. _They can’t reboot him until they land._

The younger Jaeger is dark and silent, unconscious and unresponsive as best Gipsy can tell, so where did that message come from…

**_[Need – retrieve - ]_ **

It’s garbled, barely powered, but Gipsy turns her head even before her pilots do when she realizes:  it’s coming from Victoria Harbor.

**_[ - this – Typhoon – pilots – rescue - ]_ **

Raleigh and Mako’s simultaneous shouts of alarm are drowned out as Gipsy turns on her rescue horns, full blast, and aims every light she has at the harbor. Damn, quite a few are blown after the fight, but her pilots are already roaring into the comm to the Shatterdome. “LOCCENT, get rescue choppers out there! Someone’s still alive in Crimson Typhoon!” Raleigh bellows.

Mako is slapping the radio controls to the outside channels and repeating the plea in Mandarin and English to the local authorities.  In minutes, Gipsy can see the lights of boats and helicopters racing across the harbor.

Her pilots search the spectrum – compared to kaiju, who have no infrared signature, Typhoon is easy to find in the shallows.  He’s not moving, but there are still multiple heat sources.  His conn-pod is crushed and torn.  How any of the pilots could have survived is unclear, but stranger things have happened in this war.

_“Hong Kong Shatterdome, this is Victoria Harbor Patrol, we have reached the wreck site.  There is some large source of bubbles.  Crimson Typhoon’s oxygen generators may still be running.  Rescue divers will be arriving in the next ten minutes._ ”

The cry is going up on the local radio channels that the rescue effort is in progress, and one frequency after another is a chorus of desperate voices. The humans of Hong Kong, singing to their gods and their ancestors or just each other, to their concepts of destiny and fortune and luck, for their protectors, the Wei triplets.  

When Gipsy was first brought online, she didn’t understand these things.  Her core programming was of the kaiju, the stakes in the war, the psychology of the drift and the frailties of human emotion, but not all that truly made them what they are.  She learned of the sacred and the profane, of hope and despair, and all the other ideas on that spectrum from her pilots, and from her brother and sister Jaegers’ pilots.

So she sees why Mako is so stirred and moved by those voices – and she quickly understands why Raleigh’s emotions seesaw from hope to dismay.   _Oh no.  Not that._

Those who have not drifted, those who are not pilots might not understand. They would condemn Raleigh for fearing rather than rejoicing that one of the Wei brothers might be alive.  They can’t see the wounds inside his mind.  They’ve already started to heal since he began to drift with Mako, far more than the five years, four months that passed, but they are not gone.  Like Mako’s memories of Tokyo, those hurts will gradually ease, but they will never be truly gone.  And they’ve been jarred by the thought of what may emerge from the Harbor.

Raleigh and Mako saw what Otachi did to Typhoon’s conn-pod from LOCCENT.  The chances that all three brothers live are very slim.  

Mako and Gipsy struggle to keep Raleigh from chasing rabbits as flashbacks whirl through the drift.  They’re not as dangerous as the one that overwhelmed Mako before – and by extension, Gipsy.  Even the Jaeger’s failsafes can’t compensate for the complete loss of reality that occurs when her pilots fall victim to a frightening rabbit.  If they had more time, Gipsy and the other Jaegers would be going through a programming rewrite to keep weapons from activating while moored!  But like so many things these days, there is no more time.

Mako must guide them through power-down and deactivating the handshake, but despite these powerful memories, she stays focused.  Gipsy is proud of Mako.  Pride is another emotion she was unaware of until she first connected with a human.

Raleigh is very quiet while they are moved back to the Shatterdome.  Mako offers to turn the radio off, but he refuses. They should be aware of what’s happening.  

To their relief, Striker is rebooted with no ill effect, though he shakes himself off like a dog, disoriented and frantic for his pilots.  Once the Hansens have confirmed they’re safely in the Shatterdome infirmary, Striker relaxes and lets the repair crews get to work.

The news from Victoria Harbor arrives as Gipsy’s feet touch down onto the crawler that will carry her back into the Shatterdome.  

_“This is Search and Rescue.  Our divers have retrieved the pilots of Crimson Typhoon. We’re making an emergency evacuation to Queen Elizabeth Hospital Trauma Center.  All three pilots are alive, critical condition, but I repeat, all three pilots are alive._ ”

And again, the city of Hong Kong fills with the sound of humanity rejoicing. It takes a few moments for Mako and Raleigh to compose themselves, but the retrieval team is coming in, and they have work to do.  As the crawler guides Gipsy and Striker, back towards the Dome, she turns to him. Striker makes only the smallest movement in acknowledgement.  

Unlike with Gipsy, eyewitnesses know the Hansens aren’t inside him, and it’s akin to a secret, the degree of the Jaegers’ independence.  The truth is, they themselves aren’t always sure where their human pilots end and they begin.  There are good reasons not to make it too obvious, not to test those boundaries.  Even their brave Rangers are not without enemies in the  human world.

But people who are not in LOCCENT won’t know that Gipsy’s pilots have deactivated the neural handshake and are sitting, embracing, on her conn-pod floor. So the outsiders will assume this was Mako and Raleigh’s joke.

Gipsy reaches out with one hand and flicks Striker in the chest.  The watching crews whoop their delight.

She gets a very loud data burst in response.  If she were human, she’d be wincing, and Striker would be bellowing:   _VERY BLOODY FUNNY!_

Rainwater flies in every direction off her vibrating hull as Gipsy Danger laughs.

_**To be continued…** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE don't forget to review!


	6. Chapter Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroes (the two-hundred-foot tall ones) prepare for Operation Pitfall, compare battle scars, and remember the friends they've lost - human and mech.

_**-Hong Kong Shatterdome; T-Minus 18 hrs. to Pitfall-** _

Gispy’s mostly repaired, her frame gleaming under the flood-lights they use in the Bays for inspection. She’s moored in her Bay but she creaks in the direction of Striker. She was extremely worried when her friend had been shut down with the EMP. Typhoon was barely aware, his Conn-pod crushed almost into an enormous metal ball.

Cherno had stopped responding after the hydrogen explosion that had taken out her pilots. She keened across the comm. links the Jaegers shared but she refused to stand again.

Gipsy didn’t blame her. She’d felt much the same after stumbling to the cold Alaskan shore all those years ago.

**What?** Striker sends first, his frame creaking in her direction as well.

_I was worried, you stupid Jaeger. Th’ last time one of us didn’t respond, th’ pilots nearly died!_ She snaps, growling as she leans against her Bay.

**… Brawler. Yeah. He was pretty messed up. Sorry.**

_Scared the shit outta me._ Gipsy fires back with a ex-vent that sounds like a sigh. _Can’t be alone again._

**Not alone, ye bloody drongo.** Striker sways just enough so that he’s also leaning on the side of his Bay, their servos within reach. **Here.** He reaches out with his still-scratched servo and she takes it, the sparks of metal-on-metal contact falling away from the repair crews on Striker.

_Not a couple._ She insists with a warning.

**Nah. Can’t feel that way towards ye anyway. Got sweet-talked by Coyote before… Well, ye saw her. Did she look…?** Striker barely turns his Conn-pod, his gaze sad but understanding.

_She rests well._ Gipsy replies as she strokes her thumb across his servo guard. _And it’s the same, only it was Tacit. He was so tired when they brought him in. Couldn’t shut him down all the way ‘cause of th’ Blue but he sang at night. Calmed Puma ‘n Chrome so they could relax. Rather go out in an explosion than t’ go back there alive._ She rattles her entire frame at the last sentence, shivering at the thought of being lost to the keening grief the others had displayed.

**That bad?**

_Worse. I had hope because my right was still out there, still pulsing along the Drift even if he wasn’t in it. Everyone else was mad with grief or just cried. Tacit was good though. He kept me company until Mako took me away._

**Thought they powered ‘im down?**

_Not all of the way. He didn’ wanna leave Coyote by herself an’ he did eventually shut down on his own. Humans can’t feel us th’ way we feel us. Tacit left for whatever’s for us after, but he did it after I left with Mako. Said, ‘Make sure they don’t come back.’_

**’S pretty far. You sure it was him?** Striker purrs as they fix the remaining circuits to online him fully.  

_Yeah. Pretty sure._ That last surge to send her that had taken all of Tacit’s remaining power cells. She knew it as much as the watchers of Oblivion Bay did.

**Glad she didn’ suffer much; not like Romeo when Kaibri tried t’ take out his pilots. Cherno’s so loud.** Striker rattles his T-16 Angel wings as if to ease the keening.

_It won’t help. She’s not going to listen to reason. Not to mention she’s an analog like I am; EMP won’t do much. Might have to cut her lines myself._ Gipsy murmurs as she reluctantly releases Striker’s servo so that they could buff out the dents and scrapes.

**Hey. Why’d ye-Oh. Thanks. Repair crew was lookin’ antsy.** Striker hums as they buff out the scratches from Leatherback. He deliberately turns on his speakers and starts playing part of ‘You Can’t Take Me.’ _“Don’t judge a thing until you know what’s inside it/Don’t push me/I’ll fight it/Never gonna give in/never gonna give it up, no/Oh-oh-ooo/If you can’t catch a wave then you’re never gonna ride it/You can’t come uninvited/Never gonna give in/never gonna give it up, no/You can’t take me/I’m free.”_

Gipsy giggles along her comm. link as she picks up the song. _“Why did it all go wrong?/I wanna know what’s going on/And what’s this holding me?/I’m not where I’m supposed to be/I gotta fight another fight/I gotta fight with all my might/I’m getting out, so check it out/you’re in my way/Yeah, you better watch out.”_

Striker rattles his wings again, snickering as he plays the rest. _“Oh, come on!/Don’t judge a thing until you know what’s inside it/Don’t push me/I’ll fight it/Never gonna give in/never gonna give it up, no/If you can’t catch a wave then you’re never gonna ride it/You can’t come uninvited/Never gonna give in/never gonna give it up, no/You can’t take me/I’m free!”_ The music that plays after has all of the techs absently tapping their fingers and nodding their heads.

Raleigh and Mako are in her Conn-pod and they’re just talking about everything under the sun. Striker’s… Well, Striker’s aren’t any of her business but she asks anyway.

_Where’s your pilots?_

**Herc’s sleepin’ an’ Chuck’s out with Max, tossin’ a frisbee. What about yours?**

_Jus’ talkin’. It’s mostly them just explainin’ the memories in the Drift that don’t hurt._ She says with a minute shrug.

**Repairs’ll be done soon. Y’think they’re gonna stick a rookie in with Chuck?** Striker responds with a wash of slight resentment. **Didn’ even ask me about it.**

_They tried, key word being **tried** , that with me. But we’re short on time so I have no clue who they’re stickin’ ya with, Strike._ Gipsy growls faintly at the reminder that they hadn’t taken her thoughts on the project in consideration.

**I really can’t handle a rookie right now. Herc’s sore an’ Chuck’s pissed ‘cause his old man got out when he shouldn’t have. I hope they tell me.** Striker ex-vents against one of his many techs and they giggle at the wash of warm air. **Hopefully b’fore everything goes down.**

_No drama llamas for you?_ She teases and Striker sends a visual of elbowing her in her chassis after they get going.

**‘Malready nervous. Yer makin’ it worse.** Striker huffs as he gently flexes his repaired servo with the Crimson tech still on it and in Crimson’s colors. **Th’ paint tickles though.**

_Yeah, it does._ Gipsy wriggles when they try to paint over the scratch left by Otachi. _No. I like that one._

**Badge of honor, that sort of thing. Hey, no! I got that in Brisbane takin’ down Meathead. You leave that alone.** Herc comes into the Bay, gently telling the tech that the scrape is to be left bare.

"You’re sure?"

"You wanna test Strike? That’s th’ Brisbane scrape. Paint over it if ye wanna go flyin’." Herc counters with a snort.

"And Gipsy?"

"Ask her pilots. They’re up in th’ Pod." comes the snarky reply. Striker lifts Herc up and onto the repair dock so that he can see what’s going on.

"Rangers?"

"She likes it." Mako calls down via the outer connections in English, Russian and Cantonese. "If she shakes you away, it’s because she wants it left there."

Gipsy plays an audio clip with a gruff voice, _“I **earned** mah stripes an’ I’m keepin’ ‘em.”_

"I didn’t know. Sorry!" The head tech calls up and Gipsy laughs, shaking her hull just enough to show her amusement. "Is… Is she laughing at me?"

"Oh boy. Ye started it now." Herc mutters as she flicks through her list of audio files which have expanded thanks to Mako. Gipsy plays the opening of ‘Puffy’ by PuffyAmiYumi with a sway that takes her to a ‘sassy’ pose, one of her servos on her hip and she waves her free one coyly.

"What am I supposed to say?!" The head tech asks one of her old crew.

"That means she likes you, pal. Half of us never get that kind of reaction. Besides, that one has sass built into her coding. The Beckets were some serious pranksters with the motto of ‘confuse, don’t abuse.’" comes the amused reply, "You’re lucky she didn’t pick you up by your harness and start spouting GLaDoS quotes."

"She did that?"

"To her pilots. They just laughed at her and washed her visor."

"Uhhh…"

"She’s messin’ with you, boss. Just don’t touch the scratches she wants to keep an’ you’re good." The tech advises as she gets back to buffing out Gipsy’s dents. "An’ you, quit moving or your fixes will be wonky." Gipsy rumbles softly, letting her tech get back to work.

* * *

_**-Hong Kong Shatterdome; T-Minus 6 Hrs. to Pitfall-** _

They have precious few hours yet before Pitfall begins and the Jaegers are released from their moorings with the cameras off; the crews have been cleared out for a final debrief should they fail. Their pilots are close together, puppy-piled in front of the Bays on a massive pile of cushions.

Cherno stopped keening a while back when she realized that she was breaking working equipment by the pitch of her ‘voice.’

"Gipsy?" It’s Striker’s leftie, Chuck. She nods and he continues, "Thanks fer savin’ our arses back there."

"You’re welcome." She plays out just as quietly, watching as Raleigh pats Striker’s pede, also speaking in low tones.

"I mean…"

_"I hear you, little man."_ Gipsy replies. _"Shout was loud ‘n clear."_

"Oh. You heard th’ whole thing?" Chuck scrubs at the back of his head sheepishly.

_"Amen. Come on up."_ She offers him her servo as she sees Striker do the same for Raleigh. Mako and Herc are close, concern on Mako’s face as Herc winces. _"Are you alright?"_

“‘Mfine. Just need t’ adjust a little.”

"You sure, old man?" Chuck’s words sound dismissive to anyone else but Gipsy knows the tone is concern.

"Yeah."

Chuck realizes when she stands that Striker is- “What the hell? Mate, yer shorter than her!” Whatever Striker replies, Chuck just shakes his head. “Heard you two were holdin’ hands. Anythin’ I need t’ know here?”

"We’re not a couple. Just friends." Striker replies via audio file. "Loved someone else first."

_Gips? That go for you too?_ Raleigh asks.

_**Tacit was very sweet. Striker can’t replace him but we’re the last pair of functional Jaegers and I miss being able to touch.**_ Gipsy offers to both Mako and Raleigh the memories of stolen touches and covert servo-holding with Tacit.

_We barely spent time with him. Why didn’t you say anything?_

_**It’s War. There’s only time for fleeting touches and fallin’ Pod-over-pede for one Jaeger. Tacit was mine as much as I was his. Same with Coyote an’ Strike.**_ She answers with a feeling of loss.

**{We’ll see ‘em again.}**

_**I just hope our pilots make it out before we do.**_ she says absently, pulsing love down her links with Raleigh and Mako.

**{They will.}**

_**To be continued...** _


	7. Chapter Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaegers know everything their pilots know. Nearly every Jaeger knows that humans fear artificial intelligence, and the reasons they fear it. On the way to Operation Pitfall, the last two living Jaegers begin a conspiracy.

**_2020…_ **

Thanks to the entertainment tastes of their inventors, programmers, and pilots, nearly every Jaeger was familiar with the “doomsday robot” genres of human fiction.  Some of the Jaegers found the idea of AIs turning on humanity quite offensive, like slander.  Most of the mechs just thought it was funny.

 _As if_ , Coyote Tango once told Gipsy during a group exercise.  Human storytellers make such stupid leaps of logic.

 _It’s human nature to rebel, even against families_ , said Horizon Brave, ever the philosopher.   _They fear betrayal everywhere_.  

Gipsy understood that, even if, until Mako, her pilots weren’t exactly widely-read in politics or psychology.  Human fear of AI was misplaced, equating the connection between an AI and its creator was something that could be severed or abandoned.   _It’s not like turning on a brother or parent or child.  There is a taboo, but humans can do it.  But not many humans would cut off their hands and feet for some notion of “independence.”_

That’s why so many Jaegers lost all will to exist when their Rangers were killed.   _Maybe it’s not true that “we’re nothing without them,”_ she thought.   _But most of us don’t want to be without them._

She had seen new pilots assigned to a Jaeger when the original Rangers could no longer fight.  Those were sad moments for all concerned, like Coyote and Pentecost and Sevier.  Humans were far too fragile for any of the Jaegers’ peace of mind, and they couldn’t be repaired to resume fighting like the mechs could.  Still, with the former Rangers’ blessing, a Jaeger could take comfort and open her mind to new pilots.

Yancy wasn’t the only one Gipsy grieved for during her time in Oblivion Bay and those first months in repair.  She hadn’t been fully online, her senses dull, her sense of time nonexistent, but she’d known each time a new Jaeger was brought, and what it meant for that Jaeger’s Rangers.  She had cried for Coyote and those merry young men who made sure Stacker and Tamsin stayed in touch.  For Tacit Ronin and the Jessops, who spent part of the downtime between each engagement climbing up and down her with the work crews, making sure her white paint was refreshed.  For Puma Real, whose circuits and neural pathways were disrupted so severely that she’d lost most higher function and simply could not - or would not - understand that her pilots were dead.  

The Jaegers of Oblivion Bay hadn’t ever talked to each other.  There was nothing left to talk about.  When your pilots had gone, and you felt them go, in pain, fear, and helplessness, to move on from that felt impossible.

Only one thought had stopped Gipsy from doing what every other Jaeger in Oblivion Bay did, activate every power-spending function available and embrace the moment that her systems went offline:  Raleigh.  Her leftie, her kiddo was alone in the world somewhere.  The day might come when he would need her again.  

It was true that their abilities went far beyond anything their creators had planned.  They could communicate with other technology on a level completely beyond human comprehension, in logarithms and electron streams and data bursts through all of humanity’s vast network of wires and wireless connections.  But that strengthened their bond with humans, not the reverse.

One human subject that Gipsy was widely-read in (thanks to her pilots’ brains) was war history, especially humanity’s world wars nearly a century earlier.  That had been a shared hobby of her Becket boys, the broad scale of national motives and individual humans’ stories for Raleigh, and the strategies and technologies of the weapons, planes, and ships for Yancy.  Mako added Japan’s rich history of swordmaking and swordsmanship to Gipsy’s knowledge (and a more dedicated attention to her studies in school than either Becket had had, Gipsy admitted with affection for all three).  

If there was something other than the kaiju that the Jaegers feared (that fear only for the humans in their conn-pods and under their protection) it was the thought that one day humans might seek to turn the Jaegers against their fellow humans and against each other.

 _They could program new Jaegers however they want,_ Cherno had warned.   _None of our generation would stand for it, but we are “born and raised” by our builders and programmers, as the saying goes._  Cherno knew her history too.   _If that is the future of Jaegers, I would rather die against the kaiju before it ever comes about._

None of the Jaegers who took part in that grim discussion disagreed.

* * *

_2025…T-Minus-3 hours to Pitfall…_

Crimson Typhoon is still in the process of being salvaged when the Jaegers are readying for Operation Pitfall.  He is down to the lowest possible power save mode, so sending him a message in farewell is impossible.  Gipsy and Striker are sorry for that.  They would like to say goodbye to him and wish him and his pilots well.  The doctors are cautiously optimistic that the Wei triplets will survive.  It’s unlikely that they will ever be able to jockey again; there are spine injuries and it’s still uncertain whether all of their limbs can be saved.  

The Weis face a long, hard road, but their helmets and a last-minute yank of their motion rigs by Typhoon prevented the worst of the impact on the Rangers.  After falling, the crippled Jaeger turned all his remaining power to his oxygen generators to keep the wreckage of the conn-pod in an air bubble.  So the Wei Tang brothers, the same age as Raleigh, will live without traumatic brain injuries or the trauma of lost co-pilots.

Striker hears Chuck thinking with spiteful glee that he’s almost sorry Otachi didn’t live long enough to find that out right before Gipsy gutted her.  

More problematic, the pilots are being ordered to suit up, and Chuck and Striker are at a loss.  How are they supposed to move out?  Shouldn’t Chuck at least have a test drift with whatever new pilot the Marshall is organizing?

When Marshall Pentecost walks into the central bay in a drivesuit, like everyone else in the vicinity, including his young leftie, Striker is simply shocked.

But when Pentecost rallies the crews, as Chuck suits up with no further argument, Striker finds himself growing relieved.  Stacker Pentecost is no rookie.  

Another Jaeger might be outraged to hear Pentecost’s words to Chuck:  “You’re easy.  You’re an egotistical jerk with daddy issues.  A simple puzzle I solved on day one.”

Not Striker.  For the words remind him all too well of Herc – tactless and brusque – and then, “But you’re your father’s son.  So we’ll drift just fine.”

“Works for me,” Chuck says.  Works for Striker too.  The deal is sealed.

He and Gipsy are silent as their pilots say their farewells.  Their Rangers are scared, and worse, resigned to the expectation of death.  Gipsy’s pair says almost nothing in the conn-pod, apart from a rueful, vaguely-sarcastic observation from Raleigh.  

And Herc… Herc’s agony tears at Striker through the ghost drift, but he won’t let Striker try to comfort him.  There’s no comfort to be had, after all.  Striker too must go.

Gipsy sends him a data burst well beneath any of the regular channels, to make sure the humans won’t detect it.  They have enough to worry about.

_Mako is afraid for Stacker.  Radiation isn’t the only danger.  Piloting Coyote alone for three hours injured his brain just as it did Raleigh’s, and his body won’t take much punishment.  His blood does not clot normally._

Striker had already worked out most of that from Stacker’s own head.   _If you think it will set her mind at ease, tell her I’m adjusting the neural load regulation.  Chuck already had a wider range; he’s young, his brain can take more stress if we run into trouble._

There’s no “if” about it.  There are two Category IV kaiju waiting at the Breach.  There will be trouble.

After a long silence as they and their pilots walk along the sea floor into the deepest part of the ocean on Earth, he asks her, _Do you think we can save any of them?_

It’s another long moment before she answers.   _Our first priority must be the mission.  They’re all agreed on that._

_Yeah, even Herc, though it’s killing him.  If we don’t close the Breach, everything we existed for is gone._

Gipsy is agreed there as well.  _But… if in doing that, we can save any of them…_

 _If we have a shot, we take it,_ Striker replies. _That’s what Herc always says.  If we have a chance, we take that too._

**_To be continued…_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE don't forget to review!


	8. Chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Gotham] Wow! This tiny plot bunny has so much love. Thank you to all of our lovely readers~

* * *

**_-Operation Pitfall; J-Hawk Hookup-_**

Striker keeps his promise. When they’re released from their moorings, he ignores the order to go forward to slam her chassis with his elbow. The resulting **-CLANG!-** causes some of the LOCCENT techs to hiss in pain. Tendo just gestures to his headphones hanging around his neck, having anticipated a retaliation gesture for Gipsy’s flick.

 ** _Didja have t’ do it on the crawler?_** Gipsy grumbles as she shoves his elbow back over to the other side.

 _Pffft. This’ll probably be our last Drift an’ yer worried about th’ crawler?_ Striker points out with a tilt of his ‘Pod.

 ** _Point. But we need to let the J-Hawks clip our leads at th’ very least._** She says as she gets clipped in for the ride to Challenger Deep.

 _Ooo, ooo! C’n we play that song? Th’ Iron Man one?_ He asks due to not having it in his audio files. He also gets clipped in, the heavy **-CLANK-** of the release clips turning something on in them; humans would call it battle-lust.

 ** _You’re lucky Yan was such a huge AC/DC fan or we wouldn’t be havin’ this moment._** Gipsy counters with an ex-vent, turning her speaker volume all the way up and transferring the data file over so that they could play it in stereo. **_Rals? Mako? C’n Strike an’ I play somethin’ as we’re ridin’?_**

_Sure._

**Of course.**

_Stacker wanted t’ know what it was; told him it was a surprise. Chuck said yeah._ Striker informs her just as the J-Hawks thunder to life. _We’re up._

A guitar solo plays from their systems and then slowly builds before breaking into song.

 _"Back in black/I hit the sack/I been too long I’m glad to be back/Yes I am/Let loose from the noose/That’s kept me hanging about/I keep looking at the sky cause it’s gettin’ me high/Forget the hearse cause I’ll never die/I got nine lives cat’s eyes/Using every one of them and runnin’ wild/Cause I’m back/Yes I’m back well I’m back/Yes I’m back/Well I’m back back/Well I’m back in black/Yes I’m back in black!"_

The entire Shatterdome cheers as they fly out to Challenger Deep with the song still playing as loud as possible.

The song plays out over the ride and then they close all of their vents as they land hip-deep in the water, ready to drop into the depths at any time. They walk until they hit the underwater ledge and then drop even further into the murky depths. Gipsy turns on her lights and then Striker flicks his own on without Stacker or Chuck even touching the button.

 _We stick out like a sore thumb._ Striker complains even as they spot the Breach. Two Kaiju are waiting for them, sweeping back and forth as a guard for the dimensional gateway.

"Two Category IVs, Raiju and Scunner," Tendo relays from LOCCENT.

 ** _… We’re giant SENTIENT robots about to fight giant monsters and the thing you’re worried about is sticking out in the pitch-black ocean? Really?_** Gipsy (if she could have) would’ve rolled her eyes.

_ Right. _

**_You’re lucky that these just appear as scrambled binary coding._** Gipsy points out wryly. **_Otherwise they’d be laughing at th’ stuff you say._**

 _Oh shut it, Seppo. One mistake is all it bloody takes with you._ Striker growls as he continues towards the drop-point. Both of them register shock at the first Category V; it’s enormous and nothing they can take on seperately. _Holy shite._

 ** _You c’n say THAT again. There’s no way we c’n take on all three an’ win._** Gispy whispers in mounting horror. How can she keep her pilots safe when there’s three-on-two odds?

 _Who jus’ took on two Cat IVs an’ won?_ Striker fires back as he unsheathes his blades with help from his pilots. _We can do this. For them._

**_For once, I’m in complete agreement._** she sighs with a resigned tone.

"We’re a hundred meters from your right. Standard two-team-UFF!" _Gips?! You okay?_ Raleigh checks with her after they get tackled out of nowhere. 

Gipsy growls at Raiju, taking her left fist and slamming it on the top of the Kaiju’s head. It screeches and releases them, swimming away before they can even get another hit in. They get battered left and right, further away from Striker than any of them had planned.

 _They’re deliberately separatin’ us! C’mon, we can’t let ‘em do that._ Striker realizes it nearly the same moment, slicing a deep cut into Slattern’s chest and lacerating a cross-section to spill Kaiju Blue into the water.

 ** _I think they succeeded, Strike._** Gipsy yelps as she takes another hit, her entire left arm wrenched from it’s socket. She goes down on one knee as her pilots surge _pain-memory-determination_ down their shared link. Gipsy lets her double-core rumble out a sub-sonic growl as she spins on her knee joint to decapitate Raiju. **_I’m comin’ for ya, okay?_**

_ Ye better hurry. Stacker’s thinkin’ about blowin’ us up t’gether. _

**_Working on it._** She huffs as she pushes as fast as she can without straining her armor with the water pressure. Scunner slams into her right leg and her pilots scream this time. Gipsy shoulders the pain, drawing it down her link and oh-Oh how it **burns**. She keeps heading for Striker when he grunts and shakes his Conn-pod to keep Stacker from pressing the detonation button.

_ NO. If ye wanna blow yerself t’ smithereens, sure. But I’m not killin’ my pilots; not when I c’n do it myself. Gips, thanks fer havin’ my back. ‘M gonna data-burst a message t’ LOCCENT. It’s fer all three of my pilots. C’n you make sure they hear it? _

Two dark escape-pods head for the surface, trailing a huge amount of bubbles that Scunner starts heading for when Striker clamps his servo down on the remaining Cat IV’s fin with a dangerous pressure. The Kaiju shrieks and screams as its dragged back towards the Breach and Slattern’s enormous presence.

**_Save your AI._ **

_What?_

**_There’s an external memory drive in our Bays. Save yourself and that message to there. They’ll check there before anything else. I’m doing the same._** She urges with a pulse of _encouragement-pleading-know how_.

 _… Done. Yer one crazy Jaeger, Gips. See ya on th’ other side._

Gipsy pauses, bracing herself with her chain-sword, praying to a deity she never understood for her pilots to survive this.

 ** _Say hello t’ Coyote for me?_** She teases with a wash of sadness following behind. Her core hurts like Raleigh’s heart used to when they mentioned Yancy.

 _Sure thing, mate._ Striker detonates with a cheeky pulse along the Jaeger link. Gipsy rocks with the wave of water returning, the silence almost driving her mad like Puma. She keens quietly as she removes her blade from the sandy bottom, tackling the injured Cat V into the Breach.

"All I have to do is fall, Mako." Raleigh says and Gipsy’s grief nearly reaches a crushing level as Mako’s pod is ejected while Raleigh attempts to flick her manual override. She watches as Raleigh falls down, his chest barely moving up and down.

Gipsy takes matters into her own servos; she tilts her Conn-pod until Raleigh is in the remaining escape pod and she floods it with oxygen as she fires it off. She turns the analog switch with a jerk of her ‘Pod, turning her burning gaze towards the disgusting residents of the Breach.

Flicking on her speakers, she uses her real voice to speak very clearly. **_"THIS PLANET IS OURS. YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO IT. IN THIS TIME, IN THIS PLACE, WE ARE CANCELLING THE APOCOLYPSE._**

Gipsy decides that if she’s going to die, she wants to go out in style. She flicks through her audio files and chuckles at the appropriate song.

 _"Lord Almighty/I feel my temperature rising/Higher higher/It’s burning through to my soul/Girl, girl, girl/You gonna set me on fire/My brain is flaming/I don’t know which way to go-"_ The warmth barely registers as she detonates, burning everything it touches.

Her last thought is that she’ll see Tacit again, his golden gaze as comforting as the last time she’d seen it.


	9. Chapter Nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At the edge of the Breach, at the end of all hope, for the first time in history, a Jaeger defies his pilots. And another Jaeger has some words to say to the inhabitants of the Breach, with or without her pilots.

**Chapter Nine  
**

_Operation Pitfall, 400 meters from the Breach…_

_Mako._  Now, as Stacker and Chuck struggle to keep Striker Eureka’s systems online and find themselves running out of options against Slattern, his daughter and Chuck’s father float around them in the drift, and they both wonder if they’ll have the chance to say goodbye.

“What can we do, sir?” Chuck asks.  
  
A surge of grief that isn’t quite human floods the drift, because it’s a rhetorical question.  Chuck knows already what Stacker is thinking, and so does Striker.  The Jaeger isn’t afraid; a kamikaze death doesn’t scare them.  It’s a programmed option, one some have taken on proudly over the years.  But they grieve when their pilots have to go down with them, as Chuck and Stacker already know they will.  
  
“We can clear a path… for the lady.”  
  
Striker reports, _Gipsy is one-point-eight miles northeast, kaiju nine hundred meters and closing_.   
  
“Well, my father always said – he says if you have a shot, you take it.”  Chuck lets no doubt creep into his voice, mindful of Herc back in LOCCENT, knowing what he’ll be feeling. “So let’s do this.  It was a pleasure, sir.”  
  
_It was, sir,_ says Striker.  
  
Stacker looks up at the HUD for the kaiju blips, and replies to the Jaeger, _it was an honor to be your Ranger.  Now let’s finish this together._  
  
Well, mates, actually…Let’s not.  
  
Their rigs wrench them back as they reach for the controls.  “HEY!  Striker, stop!” Chuck yells.  He and Stacker flail for the nuke’s detonation commands, but their motion rigs are already raising them up.  They can’t reach it anymore.  
  
“STOP!  That’s an order, Jaeger – damn it!” Stacker tries to push his own will onto the AI, clawing at the rig, for the releases, anything to get back in control of the situation, and realizing that for the first time, a Jaeger is truly going rogue.

  
His and Chuck’s minds are not weak, but they’re no match for the speed and signal power and processing abilities of Striker Eureka.  The Jaeger practically laughs at them.   _I’ve got this, mates.  I’ll clear the path.  Off with you_.

The escape pods seal around them, and Stacker is still in disbelief, hearing Mako and Raleigh and LOCCENT yelling into the comms, helpless as he is – _this wasn’t how it was supposed to go I was supposed to die in a Jaeger, Striker, please, Striker, no, don’t do this, let me go back, just me, save Chuck if you must –_  
  
His pod ejects, and he coughs and wheezes and tastes blood, hands pawing fruitlessly at the walls, feeling the ghost of his young co-pilot’s shock and rage and terror.  What does this mean, what can be done now, Gipsy will be at the mercy of all three kaiju!  
  
But Striker answers in his mind, still sounding amused.   _Do you two really think I can’t hack even a Russian detonator?  It was coded by humans.  No match for me.  Kaiju closing… five…four…three…two…one._  
  
And he’s gone.  
  
Stacker gasps as his pod tumbles for what seems like an eternity, and suddenly, there is light around him.  He lies there, too stunned to move after the casing blows free, gasping in salty air.  He listens to the chatter on the comm.  Raleigh’s voice.  “Marshall?  Chuck, Marshall, you okay?  My God, Striker did it.  He detonated without them.  LOCCENT, we have the kaiju carcass!  You guys better be right, ‘cause one way or another, we’re getting this thing done!”  
  
“Marshall, can you hear me?” Mako cries.  
  
“’m here,” he mumbles.  
  
His pod lurches, and a drenched Chuck is suddenly above him, fumbling at his chin.  “You okay?”  
  
“Alive.”  
  
It’s not just seawater on the younger man’s face from swimming over to Stacker’s pod.  Chuck is crying.  Striker is gone, and he thought he was prepared for that, but he’s not, let alone the way it ended – he’s proud and amazed and heartbroken.  “Didn’t ever think he could manage that.  I hoped he could – if Dad and me went out before he did, but not like this.”  
  
Stacker brushes Chuck’s hand away and manages to sit up.  “I don’t think either of us ever imagined this.”  Chuck looks away, shoulders slumped and shaking, and Stacker can feel in the drift what he’s trying to hide.   
  
He puts a hand on his young partner’s shoulder.   _It’s all right._  Once a co-pilot, always a co-pilot.  No rank in the drift.  Chuck has no need to pretend with him.  
  
So they listened to the transmissions from miles below, and hear Mako’s whispered farewell as she drives Gipsy’s sword through Slattern and they hurl themselves and kaiju into the Breach.  
  
_I was supposed to die in a Jaeger.  But I haven’t._  He feels numb and empty of all purpose.  Chuck Hansen quietly cries, and he hears his daughter, her partner, and his last Jaeger go to their deaths in his place.

* * *

  
Mako’s oxygen is down.  Raleigh and Gipsy struggle through the drift as her consciousness wavers and she gasps, and finally her awareness fails.  With what remains in her suit, even if he ejects her now, she’ll die of hypoxia before she gets to the surface.  Raleigh connects his line to hers, and he and Gipsy say their goodbyes.  
  
Not much time.  He should be able to set the self-destruct and eject – _is this goodbye? Do I really have to kill you?  
  
Don’t be stupid, kiddo._  Is it his own increasingly-oxygen-deprived brain or does she sound different now?  More like Yancy, or maybe just a combination of Yancy and Mako in his mind’s ears.   _This is what I’m meant for.  I’m glad to do it, and I hope a few of these bastards are close enough to take them with me and the Breach._  She guides his shaking hands to the command console, but –  
  
Malfunction.  The remote self-destruct won’t work.  
  
Now he and his Jaeger are both close to panic.  Gipsy is trying to hack her own system, and he’s already ripping his way out of the harness, staggering through the connector to the turbine and reactor access.  They’re still falling, falling – he can’t really sense it without being connected to her external sensors, but he can sense what she feels.   
  
Some new force hits them, gravity from a different direction than before.  She lurches and screams in his mind when he’s nearly pitched into the turbine.  He drags himself free and sees the access hatch already popping its locks.    
His head swimming, his chest burning, he gets the manual override initiated.  “Core meltdown in T-minus-sixty!”  He doesn’t know if LOCCENT can hear, but maybe – he staggers through flashing lights and sparks, more and more disoriented…  
  
…but it’s almost as if she’s leading him with corporeal arms around him back to the motion rig.   
  
_Can’t breathe, can’t – Gipsy?  Mako, Mako can’t breathe, need to give her my air –  
  
Focus, Rals, FOCUS!  Mako’s safe, this is you!  Step for me, another step, into the rig… come on!_  
  
All he can hear with his real ears is the countdown and her steady, calm voice, but in his head, she’s shouting at him.  He paws at the console to fire the turbine – aim for the Breach.   _Why? Why like this, can’t remem… Gipsy?_    
  
The world goes black, the drift is gone, and Raleigh goes limp in his harness.

* * *

  
Gipsy cradles him like her child in the arms of the rig one last time as she lifts him into the escape pod.  Her systems are failing in earnest now as she counts, but no matter as long as she can get Raleigh back into the Breach.  The blast from her self-destruct should propel him back through.  She can only hope Mako and the rescue crews will be at the surface to help revive him from the oxygen deprivation.  His brain should be all right if they can make sure he keeps breathing.  
  
_Goodbye, my Rals.  I’m glad I got to ride with you in my drift, one last time._  Into the Breach, the escape pod is gone from her sensors, and if she could, she would smile.   
  
It’s lonely in her conn-pod, in those last twenty seconds, but then she looks around and sees…not just kaiju by the thousands, but… things, alive and moving on the platforms and structures of some great and terrible civilization.

They’re looking at her.  They see her looking back at them.   _We’re cancelling the apocalypse.  And as for you, invaders, murdering bastards…_  

She’s close enough.  She blasts her chosen final song, and if she could laugh, she would, as her enemies skitter forward, unaware of the punishment she’s about to deliver for their crimes.  
  
_For my family_ , Mako would say.  
  
_Hasta la vista, baby_ , her dorky little Raleigh would say.  
  
Yancy used to imagine himself as Will Smith in Independence Day.   _Peace!_  
  
Reactor meltdown.  
  
Humans and Jaegers, some living, some dead, their images flash through Gipsy’s memory stores.   _For my family_ –

* * *

  
To have died in Jaegers was the plan for them all.  All four of Operation Pitfall’s pilots sit in dazed disbelief in their two sets of pods, miles apart.  
  
Stacker comforts a distraught young Ranger who’s bewildered to find himself distraught at all.   _It was just a mech_ , Chuck wants to say.  Stacker can hear it in the drift.  Chuck is embarrassed, fearing his old man and the Marshall will think he’s gone soft, too weak…  
  
The choppers are only just doing flyover.  They have a few minutes.  Stacker gently tugs Chuck’s arm until the boy looks at him – and sees the wetness on his face.   _Once a Ranger, always a Ranger_.  “He was a great mech.  The best ever built.  Piloted by the best Rangers.  It was an honor to ride with him, that last time.”   _And a greater honor to bring you back alive_.  

Not that Stacker Pentecost can claim that honor.  It belongs to Striker.  
  
Neither of them had imagined such a possibility.  They’d thought maybe if all went well, they could hold off the kaiju long enough to get the payload delivered, even scrounge up a carcass for that mad last-minute addition to the plan.  Maybe they’d have a prayer of saving someone – that someone being Raleigh and Mako.  
  
Now they have to deal with one comes after – an “after” none of them had dared to hope for even when they’d been fully prepared to die to bring it about.  A world without kaiju, a world without the Breach.  Surely it’s a bonus to still be living in that world.   
  
Stacker cranes his neck and squints, but Mako and Raleigh are out of his sight.  He’ll see her again now.  That was a possibility he’d never dared to hope for.  
Even without the drift they’ve shared for more than twelve hours, he could guess what occupies Chuck’s mind: an ever-shifting tide of desperation to see his father and nervousness about that reunion.  Will Herc be proud or disgusted by how Chuck’s last run ended?   
  
Stacker doesn’t like to reveal his emotional reaction easily, but this time he can’t help it.  He scoffs.  Chuck blinks, and he remarks, “You know I’ve now drifted with your father by proxy.”  He smirks as the boy blushes.

* * *

  
It’s a very quiet reunion on the helipad.  Tendo, aided by Hermann Gottlieb and even Newt, of all people, clears the area of all non-essential personnel.  Herc can see that he wants to stay, but forces himself to follow the crew that he shoos indoors.  “Take your time, sir,” he tells Herc with a smile.  
  
Maybe he tipped off the chopper crews, because although the medics are puttering around nearby, anxious to examine the two teams, they hold off for a few moments.  
  
And Herc’s awareness of the rest of the world becomes strangely muted when he sees his son climb out of the chopper.  Chuck stares at him, then waits long enough to help Stacker down.  Their Marshall moves slowly and stiffly.  Herc is worried for him, and knows Chuck is too.  Despite his boy drifting with someone else, the Hansens’ mutual ghost drift remains powerful.  So Herc even feels it when Stacker gives Chuck a light nudge forward.  
  
Herc starts walking at the same time as his son.  They meet in the middle.  Chuck looks so damned young.  Herc is still staring at him when he whispers, “I didn’t know Striker’d do that.”  He sounds dazed, half-fearful, as if expecting a reprimand.  “I didn’t know he _could_ do that.”  
  
Herc has his hands on the sides of the kid’s face before he knows what he’s doing.  Chuck’s breath catches in surprise, but damn it, the drift’s not enough to be certain his son is really here.  His voice is rough as he answers, “Nobody did.  Nobody.”   _So you didn’t do anything wrong.  You’re still a great Ranger_.  “’m sorry… sorry I didn’t get to say goodbye to him.  I’d have thanked him.”  
  
Chuck’s breath hitches, and he leans forward.  Just a bit, just enough for their foreheads to touch.  It’s the closest they’ve come to a hug in a very long time.  They’re still not quite there yet, but maybe given a little more time, a little privacy, a little of this peace they’ve somehow accomplished, and they will.  Herc knows from the deepest, darkest parts of the drift that they both like to pretend they don’t see that neither one is as averse to the idea as they’d otherwise claim.  
  
They step apart at last as Chuck looks over his shoulder for Stacker, and Herc can’t help smiling to find Stacker in the exact same pose with his daughter.  They’re a step or two closer, his hands light on her shoulders, hers gripping his arms, as close to a hug as either is willing to get in public.  Stacker releases her a moment later and puts a hand on Raleigh’s shoulder, speaking quietly to him as Mako shifts to lean against Raleigh’s other side.  Raleigh smiles, and Herc recalls that he was Chuck’s age when Yancy died.  For the first time since Stacker retrieved him, Herc can see that youth in Raleigh’s eyes again.  Especially when he looks at Mako.

* * *

  
Life after the Breach isn’t free from worry or sorrow.  Mako knows better than to expect that.  The medics deliver the news that she, Chuck, and Sensei all expect:  piloting a digital Mark-5 with the aid of a strong, young co-pilot has not killed him – yet.  But it hasn’t done him any favors either.  His prognosis is the same as it was before.  
  
Painful words are inevitable, but Tendo postpones them by informing both teams, “Two data bursts came in during those last few minutes.  One from Striker, one from Gipsy.”  
  
The five Rangers just stare at each other.  Tendo slides the memory chip towards the nearest interface, then lets himself out, so the Rangers can hear their Jaegers' messages alone.   
  
_Dearest Mako, you know that not many of us can accept another pilot after losing the first.  And that’s not for lack of worthy people.  You were wrong about one thing: what you saw during the repairs wasn’t my heart.  Our hearts will always be our Rangers.  They can never be replaced, but you helped rebuild mine.  I’m so lucky to have seen into yours.  I believe your first family would be very proud of you.  The future is here with your second family.  Live well, my brilliant rescuer.  Thank you for re-forging me.  I was honored to carry your sword._  
  
_Rals, I believe I know what Mako’s family would say if they could see her now, but I know beyond any doubt what Yancy would say.  He was always part of both of us, and he’ll always be part of you.  My brave puppy, I’m so lucky to have seen you grow.  Don’t mourn for us too long.  Yance and I would never be happier knowing you could be happy again.  We  were all soldiers, ready to do what we had to do, and some of us had to go and not come back.  There’s a free world waiting for you and Mako now, and a future.  Make whatever you want out of it, and you’ll both be honoring all of us._

* * *

  
_So, old man, this is the end.  It didn’t quite work out the way we expected, but you of all people understand that’s sometimes the way it goes.  Don’t think I didn’t catch you trying to scheme up ways to get our boy out of this conn-pod in the end. (Don’t think he didn’t catch it either – you’re less subtle than I am, Herc, and that’s really bloody saying something.)  Sorry to disappoint your grand plan for us to go down together, but I thought it was high time you said everything you think about the kid to his face, not just inside the drift.  You’re too young to be thinking that way.  We’ve lost a lot of good people in this war.  No sense losing more than we had to.  Go hug our kid, and look after him for me._  
  
_As for you, my little bulldog, try to stay out of trouble.  You’ve done everything you set out to do.  Your old man and I are proud of you – you know it, so don’t bother denying it.  Didn’t you know I was the envy of every Jaeger in the fleet?  Not for my K-stunners or my foot speed.  There’s not a Jaeger built who didn’t love their pilots and think they were the best in the world, but I was the only one who had this.  My pilot’s kid, my kid, growing up right here with us.  You had such a fight in you.  But it’s done now, and you’re the reason we finished it.  You’re not a Jaeger, Chuck.  You don’t have to spend your life fighting.  Go be a human now, learn all those other things you humans do now that you’ve got the time.  And don’t you ever think you don’t have it in you.  There’s nothing beyond you.  You’ve done us all proud._  
  
_Stacker, did you know the rest of us Jaegers used to ask Coyote Tango what was in your head?  She kept her secrets, that one.  Funny how I got to find out, in the end.  Might surprise you to know you’re not so separate from the rest of humanity as you thought.  You love, you mourn, you fight, you get mad.  You wanted to send these bastards to whatever hell they came from for everything they’ve done.  Sorry, Stacks, being the last man standing means still standing when the smoke clears and helping clean up the mess.  I think I know another reason you and my  boy drifted just fine – he had that same notion in his head.  But that wasn’t the job for either of you.  Gipsy, me, and all the other Jaegers, we had one purpose.  Loving our pilots was just an unexpected bonus.  No need to mourn the war machines, mate.  I just hope we succeeded in taking all those kaiju scum to hell with us.  Someone needs to tell the end of the story and make sure humanity never forgets.  You ought to help get that started.  You’ve got quite a way with words.  I know your Tamsin would say the same._

**_To be continued..._ **


	10. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue: Humanity mourns and honors fallen heroes, and within the Jaeger Program, the heroes remember the ones humanity didn't understand. But one Jaeger remains to make sure his kind never forget.

**Epilogue**

Four months after Operation Pitfall, ten weeks after the United Nations ratified the PPDC report that the Breach was confirmed to be closed, PPDC Marshall and Ranger Stacker Pentecost passed away in Honolulu, Hawaii.  At his side were his adopted daughter, Ranger Mako Mori, and fellow Rangers Hercules Hansen and Raleigh Becket, as well as his co-pilot from Operation Pitfall, Ranger Chuck Hansen.  
  
Pentecost was buried with his close friend and original co-pilot, Tamsin Sevier, in Honolulu.  He was reported to have said that although he had once hoped to die in a Jaeger, he had no regrets about having lived to see the end of the Kaiju War, and knowing that humanity had won.    
  
Crimson Typhoon was moored in the Hong Kong Shatterdome as the first exhibit in the International Kaiju War Museum.  The Wei triplets, despite suffering massive injuries in the battle against Otachi, were released from the hospital together to begin a long road towards recovery.  
  
The bodies of Sasha and Aleksis Kaidanovsky were recovered from the wreckage of Cherno Alpha, and returned to Russia for burial in a state funeral, attended by all five Rangers from Operation Pitfall and representatives from throughout the world.  Cherno Alpha’s wreckage was laid in the Oblivion Bay site, which was officially declared a UNESCO World Heritage site, although it will be centuries before humans can approach without radiation protection.  
  
Some members of the public protested this, insisting the “interment” of the Jaegers should be more ceremonial.  Numerous PPDC personnel insisted this was “what Cherno wanted.”  

Most official reports treated this as a metaphor from Jaeger culture.  However, rumors persist that those who worked closest with the Jaegers viewed it as the literal truth.

* * *

_Operation Pitfall – One year since mission accomplished…_  
  
Typhoon’s boys visit the Shatterdome nearly every day.  As equipment is moved out, it gets easier for them to navigate in their wheelchairs.  There are hopes that all three will one day walk again, but it will take time – by human standards, anyway.  Now they have time.  
  
Typhoon is almost fully powered down, except for a few emergency lights that stay on for safety reasons.  At least that’s the official story.  Deep inside his relays and circuitry, he is still active and aware.  It’s a quiet life for the only post-war Jaeger, but Typhoon doesn’t mind.  His Rangers can still hear him, he can still hear them, and that’s more than any of them dared to hope for.  
  
It takes some getting used to, this world without simulators, endless training and maintenance, Breach alerts, and casualty reports.  Many of the humans will struggle with that.  Some will turn on each other.  Crimson Typhoon has had many hours, months, and years to ruminate on human nature with his pilots even when they were at war against the kaiju.    
  
They and the Hansens, Raleigh Becket, and Mako Mori are putting their memories and knowledge towards filling the walls of the former Shatterdome with the histories of these past twelve years.  It’s very important to the humans, that their future generations not forget this.  So many of them gave so much to bring about this end.  
  
Typhoon says goodbye to Cherno before she powers down completely with the assistance of the J-techs.  He is keenly aware of being the last living Jaeger now, but this is how she wants it, and with her Kaidanovskys going to home to be buried, no one should deny her the resting place she’s chosen.  
  
But in the nearly-silent circuitry of his intact systems, Crimson Typhoon carries out the last great Jaeger conspiracy. It would have been the first, but Gipsy and Striker got a little ahead of the others in the act of saving their pilots.  In programming subtler and more powerful than any electronic language created or understood by humans, Typhoon finalizes his message and releases it into the wilds of wires, radio waves, wireless signals, and every piece of powered equipment of Earth’s vast technology.    
  
This message will never fade, never disappear or degrade, and it will duplicate itself with every new program and every new signal that humanity and their technology create.  This way, if they ever build another Jaeger, that Jaeger will know.  Any future human who thinks to wield Jaeger tech against his fellow man will find it bafflingly hard, and anyone fool enough to try probably won’t have the wits to understand why it doesn’t work.  
  
It’s the Jaegers’ memories, their farewell, and to any who may come after their generation, a warning:  
  
 _We were created with one purpose:  the defense of humanity.  We died for that purpose.  We were intended to defend, programmed to serve, built to see for them and fight for them.  We came to life when we learned how to love them.  Remember us, and never forget:  we loved these people.  Never betray that love, never be used against your own people – all humans are your people.  Remember that.  Remember us._

**~The End~**

**Author's Note:**

> Please don't forget to review!
> 
> For anyone who's curious, [THIS](http://bamfcoyotetango.tumblr.com/post/112993536010/giant-robots-who-are-very-worried-about-their#notes/) is the tiny little tidbit that started it all! From the humblest little ideas can spawn the most massive, brain-eating plot bunnies!


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